SOC212: Chapter 8 – Differential Association

Ross Au

Reactions:

1) Coming from a high school that doesn't have the best reputation for “morally sound” students, I
can relate to this chapter on a personal level. Thinking about my past, I don't think I've had
much interaction with explicitly deviant or criminal groups. This, including that fact that I'm
currently getting a post secondary education (instead of selling crack on the streets or getting
involved in any other form of criminal behavior), means I can subjectively testify that there is at
least some truth to the article.

2) Overall, I felt that Sutherland and Cressy provided an interesting viewpoint on the origins of
deviance. However, I think that they disregard individual behavioral patterns too much, which I
think is a fundamental flaw that is bound to happen when one separates the two schools of
psychology and sociology. I think it would be very beneficial to see what a psychologist has to
say about differential association with regards to deviant/criminal behavior.

Keepers:

1) From the standpoint of differential association theorists, deviant/criminal behavior comes from
two primary sources that are related to one another. The first, being the association with
deviant/criminal groups that favor the violation of norms/laws, and the second, being the
opposite of the first, is the lack of contact and isolation from anti-deviant/anti-criminal groups
that prefer to conform to social norms and laws.

2) Crime is learned in much of the same way as any form of ordinary behavior. I think that this is
an important argument to take away from this chapter because it shows just how vulnerable
anyone can be to learning deviant/criminal behavior regardless of social status. I believe that
differential associations with deviant groups can easily go unmonitored and often occur during
events of younger stages of life, such as in school, and that if this association goes unchecked, it
could have the potential to lead to interactions with criminal groups. In accordance to point #1
that I made above, the person associated with deviant/criminal activity, most likely didn't have
strong social bonds with anti-deviant/anti-criminal groups. Thus, a deviant/criminal lifestyle
may be the only lifestyle he/she may have known, and that person may be unconditionally
bound to this type of activity.

Questions:

1) In this chapter, there is a segment stating that criminal behavior is learned, and that a person
who is not already trained in crime does not invent criminal behavior. Where then, do the
origins of criminal activity stem from? Could Sutherland and Cressy's theory that crime and
deviance do not come from pathological behavioral patterns be false? I think that perhaps
MOST criminal behavior is learned from the social associations with deviant groups, but not all.

2) Are there more effective ways to counteract associations with deviant/criminal behavior?
Although society is constructed in a manner as to minimize the differential associations with
deviant/criminal groups, I still feel that certain methods that society uses to supposedly remedy
 problems actually help propagate the deviant/criminal agenda. Juvenile delinquent halls and
prisons are such methods I am referring to. Rather than surrounding a deviant/criminal with
groups specifically dedicated to re-instilling positive social values, society instead isolates these
people with other deviants/criminals where their negative behaviors have the potential to be
reinforced.

Why does the topic matter?

I think that a stance on deviant/criminal behavior from a differential association perspective is

important because it provides a focus of this type of activity on a smaller scale which is much easier to
relate to that for example, a functionalist standpoint which analyzes deviance/criminality on the macro
society as a whole. Since everybody has their own immediate social circles (with the exception of
some extreme cases like feral children etc...), everyone is subject to the association of negative
behaviors, and thus the differential association perspective is important to understand so that you may
learn to avoid/resolve issues of deviant/criminal groups and help others do the same in order to
contribute to the stability of society.